From a three-game winning streak to a 45-point rout, how did the Nuggets still be forced to tie seven?

Beacon fire play pigs and dogs

2024-05-18 19:26Posted in Guangdong Sports Creator

In the 20-21 season and the 21-22 season, although Jokic won the MVP trophy for two consecutive years, due to the injury of core players such as Murray and Porter Jr., the Nuggets have not been able to make a difference in the playoffs in these two years.

Among them, he was swept out of the second round of the playoffs in 21, and in the first round of 22, he met the Warriors who were bent on winning the championship, and also suffered a 4-1 "gentleman's sweep". It wasn't until the return of core players such as Murray and Porter Jr. that the Nuggets stood firmly at the top......

In last year's playoffs, the Nuggets can be described as "God blocks and kills God, Buddha blocks and kills Buddha" - easily defeated the Timberwolves 4-1 in the first round, eliminated the championship favorite Suns 4-2 in the second round, swept the Lakers 4-0 in the Western Finals, and understated the 4-1 "gentleman sweep" of the Heat in the finals until they successfully won the championship.

And it is precisely the strength shown by the Nuggets in this year's playoffs that many people think that they have reached the level of "the big devil of the league". After all, judging from the predicament faced by the Nuggets at the time, they were not forced to go all out. This also means that under the premise of winning the championship in 23 years, their comprehensive strength in the new season is even more possible.

Therefore, no matter how amazing the records of teams such as Green Kai, Thunder, and Timberwolves are in the new season, the outside world always believes that they will not be able to stop the Nuggets from completing two consecutive championships. It's just that what people didn't expect was that in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs this year, the Timberwolves caused great trouble for the Nuggets.

In the second round of the Western Conference playoffs this year, the Timberwolves did not have stage fright in the face of the defending champions, but won G1 and G2 away games one after another. Then, in the context of the Nuggets winning three games in a row and bent on harvesting the series, they defeated the Nuggets 115-70 in G6 and handed them a 45-point rout......

So, from a three-game winning streak to a 45-point rout, how did the Nuggets still be forced to tie seven?

1. Murray and Porter Jr. continue to be in the doldrums, and they can't continue to output stably. In the first round of this year's face against the Lakers, Murray averaged 23.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game, shooting 39.7% from the field, barely reaching the team's second-in-command level.

But when facing the Timberwolves, a stronger and younger team in the second round, Murray has always struggled to play. In the first six games, he averaged only 15.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game, shooting 38.5% from the field, including 8 points and 10 points in a single game.

In the second round of this year's playoffs, facing the Timberwolves, in addition to Murray's abnormal performance, Porter Jr., one of the core of the team, also did not play. In the first six games of the series, he averaged only 11.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game, shooting 32.7% from the field.

You must know that when facing the Lakers in the first round, Porter Jr. regained his giant demeanor, averaging 22.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game, with a 56.3% shooting rate. If the series G6, Murray and Porter Jr. would have been able to maintain their first-round level, and now the Nuggets would have advanced. It's a pity that G6 Murray only scored 10 points, and Porter Jr. only scored 8 points......

2. In the face of the Timberwolves' three-wave offense, no matter how strong Jokic is, he can't return to the sky. When the Nuggets lost G1 and G2, and the core such as Murray and Porter Jr. played abnormally, as the Nuggets' leading star, Jokic had to stand up and take the responsibility of leading the team to win alone.

So compared to the first two games of the series, we saw Jokic with a stronger desire to attack and more efficient offense. In the end, under the outbreak of Jokic, the Nuggets won three games in a row and won the battle of Tianwang Mountain. I thought that the Nuggets, under the leadership of Jokic, would not give the Timberwolves any more hope and chance, and would completely end this round of the series in G6.

It's a pity that the Timberwolves, who were forced into adversity in G6, relied on the overall play of three waves of efficient offense - a wave of 20-0 in the middle of the first quarter, and a wave of 13-0 in the second quarter when the Nuggets started to chase points, and a wave of 24-0 in the third quarter, which directly made the game lose suspense.

Originally, if the Nuggets could play normally, or even play the state they were in the first round as a whole, then even if the Timberwolves broke out continuously, they would still have a chance to win. Unfortunately, the G6 Nuggets played abnormally overall, shooting only 30.2% from the field and 19.2% from three-point range. In the end, in the context of the team's abnormal overall performance, even if Jokic had the heart to win, he was powerless to recover, and could only watch the series being forced to tie seven......

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